A San Francisco man, accused of being a crime boss who conspired to unite the nation's Chinese criminal gangs under his control, was convicted yesterday on racketeering and other federal charges that could put him away for life.

The conviction of Peter Chong, 58, on 10 of the 13 counts against him marked the end of a decadelong campaign by authorities to dismantle the Wo Hop To crime syndicate that dominated Asian organized crime in the Bay Area for much of the 1990s.

"The U.S. attorney's office has put a lot of resources into prosecuting cases of Asian organized crime," said spokesman Matthew Jacobs, "and in this particular case, which was a complicated and lengthy trial, we're gratified by the guilty verdicts."

The verdicts followed six weeks' of testimony in U.S. District Judge D. Lowell Jensen's courtroom in Oakland.

Jurors deliberated for three days before convicting Chong of 10 counts of racketeering, murder-for-hire, heroin trafficking, extortion and arson. They acquitted Chong on two loan-sharking charges and deadlocked on one count of distributing cocaine.

Chong will be sentenced July 12. He faces up to life in prison and millions in fines.

He blew kisses to his wife and twice tapped his fist to his chest after the verdicts were read. He then whispered to his four children and blew them kisses.

"I love you," he said as a bailiff led him away. "Be strong." He then muttered in Cantonese, "There's no justice in this world."

During the trial, Chong's attorneys claimed their client was an innocent businessman who came to San Francisco from his native Hong Kong so his children could receive American educations. They denounced the verdicts as "unjust" and said they were not supported by the evidence.

a triad with links to Hong Kong that operated in Bay Area Chinatowns. They also claimed Chong and other gang leaders organized Tien Ha Wui (the Whole Earth Association) to unify Chinese gangs nationwide under Chong's control.

A 103-page indictment returned in 1993 accused Chong of conspiring to engage in a host of rackets, including arson, drug trafficking, conspiracy to commit murder and loan sharking.

Chong fled for Hong Kong in 1992. After years of legal wrangling, authorities there agreed to extradite him to the United States in June 2000.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Chong directed a hit against a Boston gang leader, established cross-country drug deals and led a Bay Area loan-sharking and extortion racket. They called Chong the brains behind the operation and said his stature within Wo Hop To made him the only person capable of unifying the Chinese gangs.

In his closing statement, Caplan told jurors the government's case was based partly on "cultural misperceptions" and untruthful testimony from co- conspirators who received lighter sentences.